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AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE LICIVYRONEAN SOCIETY 



WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, 



15th MAY 1847, 



THE ANNIVERSARY 



POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE OF VIRGINIA. 



BY RICHARD I V AN H O E^C O C KE, 



5"--' 



Of Fluvanna County. 




RICHMOND: 

PRINTED BT SHEPHERD AND COLIN. 

1847. 






CORRESPONDENCE, 



WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, 

May 15th, 1847. 
Dear Sir, 

The Licivyronean Society, through the undersigned, return 

then- sincere thanks for your very able, eloquent and appropriate Address 
delivered before them this day, and respectfully request a copy of it for 
publication. 

In making this request, the Society are actuated no less by a desire of 
rescuing from oblivion the first page of Virginia's History, than of render- 
ing to genius its deserved reward. 

With sentiments of the highest regard, 

We are, dear sir, your sincere friends, 

E. NANCE, ] 

J. H. LEWIS, I 

S. B. MARYE, \ Comviittee. 

P. A. TALIAFERRO, 
H. M. WALLER, 
Richard Ivanhoe Cocke, Esq. 



WILLIAMSBURG, 16th May 1847. 

Gentlemen, 

Your very kind and complimentary letter of yesterday 

has just been handed to me. 

I am not so weak as to attribute the good opinion you have expressed of 
the Address that I have had the honour of delivering before you, to any 
merit of its own, but to the partiality with which generous and warm 
hearted Virginians are prompt to regard any effort intended to revive the 
hallowed memories which brighten our early History. 

If in your estimation this object will be advanced by the publication of 
the Address, I have neither the right nor the disposition to refuse ; for he 
is no true son who would thieve any thing, however small, from Old 
Virginia. 

I submit herewith the Speech you have called for, to receive such desti- 
nation as you may please to give it. 

May God bless j'ou, and may our loved old College be ever proud to 
number you among her children, is tlie fervent prayer of 
Your friend, 

RICH'D IVANHOE COCKE. 
Messrs. Nance, Lewis and others, Committee. 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Licivyronean Society : 

III accepting the call which your courtesy and 
kindness have made upon me, I would be doing injustice to my 
own deep sense of the obligations which it imposes, did I not 
make at least the poor return of my gratitude and thanks for 
a compliment both undeserved and unexpected. When I look 
to the roll of our venerable College, and behold it studded with 
names " innumerable and bright" of living alumni distinguished 
for learning, eloquence and worth — when, too, I remember 
that many of them proudly claim, as I do, membership in your 
Society, it is, 1 assure you, with sincere distrust and unaffected 
embarrassment, that I enter upon the performance of duties, 
which might with so much propriety have been assigned to 
some older and abler brother. 

But gentlemen, it is not alone the chilling consciousness of 
inability on my part to do full justice to the majestic theme 
which this day recalls, that now saddens my heart and renders 
my tongue tremulous with emotion. After years of separa- 
tion — years of toil and struggle upon the busy stage of active 
and restless manhood, I find myself once more surrounded by 
scenes, familiar as the face of some old friend, and dear " as 
the memory of buried love." Recollections which the tramp 
of the world may have deadened for a time, but which inse- 
parably associated with the well remembered haunts of earlier 
years, needed but their magic presence to revive them, now 
come over the heart in full and gushing tenderness, recalling 
those happy meetings with beloved companions, who " made 
the starlight of my boyhood." The hopes that in life's ver- 
nal season, beamed along my path, and tinged with their rain- 
bow hues, the horizon of the future — the young, the talented, 
the brave, the happy chosen few, who stood around me like a 
band of brothers, " to smile in joy or soothe in woe" — all, all, 
crowd upon me, but like spectres of the past, for the voices 
that made music are silent and tuneless noio — the merry laugh 
that broke upon the ear like gushing rills in the desert, are 
hushed amid these scenes forever — and some, loved and che- 
rished, whose budding spring gave bright assurance of a rich 
and glorious summer, now rest in the deep and dreamless slum- 



4 

ber of the grave. " Death the skeleton, and time the shadow," 
which sooner or later gather in their cold embrace, high and 
low, the learned and the unlearned, but make their power more 
widely felt when striking some shining mark, have lately laid 
low in the dust, by one fell sweep, him who was eminently 
the pride, and hope, and stay of our loved Alma Mater. How 
can I forget, who that ever drank from that rich pure fountain 
of wisdom and truth, can fail to recall within these walls, hal- 
lowed and consecrated by the inspirations of his genius, him, 
whose ministrations within this temple of learning, through so 
many years of increasing usefulness, have made " his mind the 
mind of other men, the enlightener of nations." Surrounded 
by strangers, no familiar voice, redolent of his distant home, 
greeted his ear in the dying hour, save that of the tender and 
stricken partner of his bosom, thus suddenly called in one brief 
month, to mingle the cypress with the bridal wreath. Virginia 
mourns her gifted son thus early cut down in the midsummer 
of his career, while his memory blended with the past history 
and future fame of William and Mary, will live in the hearts 
of her children, and gild the pages of her renown " to the last 
syllable of recorded time." 

Pardon me, gentlemen, for giving expression to feelings 
which kindred scenes and associations call up in full and tear- 
ful memory, as returning once more to the home of my youth, 
and looking out for the family circle which I left at parting, I 
find here and there a vacant seat, and those who filled them 
gone forever, where only hope and faith and prayer may 
follow. 

To him who rightly understands and properly appreciates 
the blessings of free government, this day recalls an era in the 
history of man, second only in dignity and importance to the 
dawn of Christianity on the world. From it the patriot and 
statesman may date the commencement of that rich stream of 
light, which beaming in beauty upon the long dark night of 
despotism, which for ages had veiled with its covering of cloud 
the hopes and energies of man, still illumines our sky and 
marks us out as the guide and exemplar of nations. Within 
a few hundred yards of this spot, stood the ancient capitol of 
Virginia, whose crumbling ruins " majestic in decay" speak in 
classic pathos of the past, and reproach us for the ingratitude 
which could permit the mantle of oblivion to rest so long, upon 
events worthy to live forever in the memories and hearts of her 
sons. Seventy-one years has rolled away, since in this city, 
the then capital of our state, assembled a convention instructed 
in the sentiments of their constituents, and representing the 
people of Virginia in their highest sovereign capacity. No de- 



liberative body has ever before or since been convened, on 
whose action rested so much of weal or woe, of happiness or 
misery, not only to them, but to their posterity and to the 
world. It was called under circumstances well calculated to 
try the souls of men, and amidst dangers before which the 
stoutest hearts might quail. The past was beyond recall — the 
present full of gloom and despondency — the future shrouded in 
doubt and darkness, through which no human eye could catch 
one ray of hope to gild the cloud that had long been gathering 
over the colonies, and seemed then ready to burst in desolating 
tempests on their heads. Virginia, whose steadfast and devo- 
ted loyalty in earlier times had been her pride and boast in all 
her struggles, foremost in renouncing the usurpations of Crom- 
well, as she had been the last to forsake the fallen standard of 
Charles the First, heretofore looking with confidence to the 
king, to redress the wrongs which parliament has inflicted, now 
finding that her fidelity to the crown afforded no guarantee of 
safetj'', resolutely determined to renounce all allegiance to one, 
who had proven himself unworthy of trust, by abetting the 
violence and tyranny which had come with demon visitation, 
to lay waste and desolate her peaceful home. The people 
thus abandoned by their king, and denounced as rebels, the so- 
cial compact which had existed between the monarch and his 
subjects was forever annihilated. The regal government dis- 
solved, all rights reverted of necessity to their source, the peo- 
ple, and this convention, composed of men most distinguished 
for their wisdom, courage and patriotism, represented the entire 
political power in the state. This august assembly was or- 
ganized on the 6th of May, and Mr. Edmund Pendleton elected 
president. But it was on the 15th of May 1776, that by a re- 
solution unanimously adopted, the first, decisive, great, irrevo- 
cable step was taken, which placed Virginia beyond the Rubi- 
con, and pledged her to the maintenance of her independence 
then asserted, whether sustained or abandoned by the rest of 
the colonies, and in defiance of a power before which all Eu- 
rope trembled. Appealing to the searcher of all hearts for the 
sincerity of her former declarations, and reiterating her long 
cherished hope of being able to preserve her connection with 
the mother country, a«d that she had been driven from that 
inclination only by the repeated assaults upon her rights, and 
the eternal laws of self-preservation, she laid down in terms at 
once manly and distinct, the chart which was to guide her in 
the new, untried, and perilous voyage on which she had em- 
barked. To Archibald Cary, Esq. belongs the high honour of 
submitting the resolutions which passed without one dissenting 
voice, and which while stamping his name forever, on the 



brightest pages of our history, secured to Virginia the first 
place in the arduous struggle iDy which our freedom was at- 
tained, and wove a never fading chaplet for her brow, which 
cannot be taken from her. It is difficult for us at this day, se- 
cure in the enjoyment of the highest privileges and immuni- 
ties of freemen, guarded to the uttermost by a nation's power, 
and resting in calm consciousness of our strength, fully to com- 
prehend the majesty and moral grandeur of the imposing spec- 
tacle which Virginia on this day, seventy-one years ago, exhi- 
bited to the world. We contemplate with admiring wonder 
the calm fortitude and dauntless courage which nerved the 
hearts of that intrepid band, who without armies or navies, or 
supplies, cut themselves asunder from those moorings to which 
they had been accustomed to cling for safety and protection, 
and determined to take their place among the nations of earth, 
sole and self-poised by their own sovereign will and pleasure. 
But gentlemen, the lofty and self-renouncing devotion to 
liberty, the calm and resolute disregard of consequences, which 
thought not of danger and measured not the strength of the 
foe, unparalleled though they be in the annals of chivalry, yet 
are far surpassed in moral sublimity and beauty, by the quiet 
and sober wisdom with which Virginia, in the very moment 
when dissolvijig all connection with a foreign government, 
" addressed herself to the performance of a sacred duty — to 
the solemn and responsible task of self-government." 

How different in character from every other instance of 
which history teaches, of oppressed and injured nations seek- 
ing through blood and slaughter their long lost liberties, but 
no sooner escaping from the despotism which had first awaken- 
ed to resistance, they pour back upon their fields and firesides 
another visitation of calamity and death, and finally sink over- 
whelmed in some horrible struggle of brother with brother, 
crushed and buried forever under a more degrading thraldom 
than that which they had united in destroying. Disheartened 
by such frequent proofs of the brevity and uncertainty of free- 
dom, whose light, brilliant and beautiful, like the hectic flush 
which disease kindles for a moment on the wasting cheek, but 
reveals the more the ruin it adorns, how full of hope and pro- 
mise to the oppressed and down-trodden, as toiling under the 
accumulated burdens which the bigotry and pride of power 
have heaped upon them, they turn with eager gaze to this 
the brightest epoch in the history of man, hoping and trusting 
that as the morning of our existence was bright and cloudless, 
so may be its noontide radiance, until passing from hand to 
hand, and " from sire to son," American liberty shall spread 
like a sea of glory over a redeemed and regenerated world. 



There is indeed a self-sustaining power with which truth 
and justice arm their votaries, defying alike the tennptations 
that would seduce, and the dangers that would appal, calm 
amidst all the mutations of fortune, rising on upward wing 
above the storms that convulse this lower world, and with 
Heaven-directed gaze looking far beyond the petty tumults 
and brief trials that may cloud the beauty of their earthly 
pilgrimage, in the full assurance that though crushed for- 
ever here, they will yet rise triumphant from the assaults 
of their foes, gilded by the eternal sunshine of God's approving 
smile. " Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just," and 
thus instructed, the men of that day, who lived for Virginia, 
for she was their all, and they were all in all to her ; she was 
their tower of strength, and they her shield and buckler, hesi- 
tated not with time-serving timidity to see what others might 
do, but proclaiming Virginia free and sovereign, and humbly 
supplicating that Almighty Being " whose nod can hush the 
thunders and serene the sky," they bade defiance to the mi- 
nions who swarmed, like vultures around their prey, and deeply, 
sternly, irrevocably pledged themselves upon the altar of their 
country, to carve their way to freedom or the grave. And 
thus from the event which this day recalls, and the success 
which crowned their eflforts, let us, now rejoicing in the beauty 
of our heritage, gather a lesson which in evil hour, if that 
hour shall come, may serve as a pillar of fire by night and 
cloud by day, to lead us unharmed through many a cheerless 
wilderness of doubt, difficulty and danger. Let us not give 
to it simply the cold assent of our understandings, but feeding 
on it in our daily meditations, engrave it on our hearts, and 
teach it by our example — that in nearly all that concerns 
man's earthly destiny, to resolve is to accomplish — and that 
before the combined energies of a people who will to be free, 
all obstacles vanish and yield at their bidding, as " flax that 
severs at the touch of fire." 

Not satisfied with a mere declaration of all further connec- 
tion with or allegiance to any foreign power, being forever at 
an end, Virginia at the same time commenced the work of 
forming a government suited to her new condition, by the ap- 
pointment of a committee, whose duty it should be in the lan- 
guage of their resolution, " to prepare a Declaration of Rights, 
and such a plan of government as will be most likely to main- 
tain peace and order in this colony, and secure substantial and 
equal liberty to the people." On the 12th of June the Bill of 
Rights — the Magna Carta of Virginia — was reported, and on 
the 29th of the same month, she performed the highest act of 
sovereignty, by adopting a Constitution — the one under which 



8 

we were born — the Old Constitution of Virginia — matchless 
for the wisdom and order of its arrangement, and which we 
have since learned to estimate by the weakness and inefficiency 
of its present miserable substitute. It was the first written 
Constitution the world ever saw, and though born in bitter- 
ness, and nurtured amidst convulsions, it performed both in 
peace and war, for more than half a century, every object for 
which it was designed. 

Thus was Virginia, standing in her own place, panoplied by 
her own uncontrollable will and sovereign pleasure, proclaim- 
ed by those who then represented the whole political power 
in the commonwealth, to be her own mistress in all things, the 
sole judge and only rightful arbitress of all that appertains to 
her interests. Her right to do this was questioned at that day 
by no other nation or people, save by those who sought to 
bring her again into vassalage, and refused, until taught by the 
convincing logic of the sword, to regard her in any other 
light. But as easily might they have arrested the mountain 
torrent in its downward dash along the wave-worn precipice, 
or hushed its thunders in the abyss below, as tame the fiery 
spirits of men familiarized to danger in all its shapes, with 
hearts stern and stubborn as the wild oaks of their forest 
home, and fitted by early hardships and daily perils to " ride 
upon the whirlwind and direct the storm." 

That only power that dared deny the sovereignty of Vir- 
ginia was at last compelled to admit it, and thus acknowledged 
by England in the treaty of peace, it was through her admitted 
by all the world. And here let us pause in grave and solemn 
thought, for an Empire's birth is our theme, and questions of 
deep, practical and enduring interest demand our serious and 
sober consideration. Where noiv is that sovereignty of which 
Virginia spoke — for which she fought — which, sooner than 
surrender, she was willing to lay down her life, a free offering 
upon its altar ? Has it fled to " brutish beasts" — to climes 
unknown — or has it sunk engulphed in that mighty maelstrom, 
the federal government, which stretches around the rights of 
the states with fearful readiness, eager to clutch the powers 
wisely reserved to them, identified with their existence, and 
as essential to their independence, as the atmosphere we breathe, 
to the organs of vitality ? 

I answer these questions, gentlemen, and speak from the 
record, when I affirm, that the sovereignty proclaimed in the 
Virginia Bill of Rights " to be vested in, and consequently de- 
rived from the people," still abides with us in all its original 
strength and fulness, ^^unalienable and indefeasible ^^^ and un- 
impaired by any thing that has been, or rightfully can be done 



to destroy it. The government of Virginia is but the creature 
of the will of those whose breath can unmake, as their breath 
has made it. And that giant power — the federal government, 
which like a colossus, bestrides the Union, and before which 
we are prone to bow, like slaves in the presence of a master, 
is but the type of the combined will of the sovereign states 
who have lifted it up, and may topple it down whensoever it 
pleases them to alter, change or abolish it. Instituted with 
the sole view of promoting and securing the happiness and 
welfare of the people, it ceases to be an object of regard, when 
failing to advance these ends, and in the language of its foun- 
ders, " it is the indubitable right of a majority of the commu- 
nity to alter, reform, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be 
deemed most conducive to the general welfare." 

Such, gentlemen, were some of the great truths taught in 
the early days of the Republic — such the tenets of that sound 
political faith, on which our fathers based as on a rock, the 
happiest model of government which enlightened man in the 
fullest fruition of his most cultivated powers, has ever erected 
to the genius of civilization. If then deemed worthy not only 
of being made the corner stone of the temple, but of being 
graven in enduring characters upon each pillar that supported 
it, so that they might never be absent from the thoughts of 
the people, or be permitted to wane upon their hearts and me- 
mories, have they become less valuable, less necessary to our 
safety, or less sacred 7iow ? Has public virtue, and fidelity, 
and disinterested patriotism on the part of those who fill the 
high places of honour and profit and trust, so " grown with 
our growth and strengthened with our strength," that we no 
longer need those lamps of wisdom and experience which our 
fathers gave to guide us amidst rocks and shoals on which so 
many goodly vessels have been stranded and wrecked forever? 
Is eternal vigilance less the price of liberty noio, than in the 
infancy of the Republic, when there was comparatively so 
little to tempt avarice, or awaken unhallowed and selfish am- 
bition ? Is power less apt noiv than ever heretofore to glide 
imperceptibly from the few to the many, rendering the weak 
weaker, and the strong more formidable and dangerous ? If 
to these inquiries an affirmative and satisfactory answer can be 
given by him, who calmly reading upon the horoscope of na- 
tions the presages of their future destiny, sees in the political 
horizon of our country, no dark spot or threatening cloud, per- 
haps the heralds of an approaching storm, then may we fold 
our arms in calm security and listen to the watchman's cry of 
" all's well." But if, gentlemen, that fate which would seem 
to have been an ordination from on high, connecting in eter- 
2 



10 

'iial fellowship, the highest privileges with the heaviest curses, 
applies equally to us, as to those Republics, once the happy- 
homes of liberty and science and the arts, now cold and soul- 
less — if the mighty elements of good with which our institu- 
tions abound, may by dark and designing ambition " borrow- 
ing the livery of Heaven to do the work of a fiend," be readily 
converted into mighty engines of corruption — if here as else- 
lohere, nov) as in all the history of the past, " wealth begets 
luxury and luxury of sloth begets disease," and this Republic, 
now watched with trembling hope by so many millions, may 
sooner or later become like regal Babylon of old, " a goblet 
from which the earth sipped and was drunken," then, oh 
then, does it behove us to mark well each step in our progress, 
to fan the flame of state pride in our hearts — to cherish as the 
life blood of freedom the principles which were this day, se- 
venty-one years ago, proclaimed in your ancient capitol, the 
light of whose memory, "a gilded halo hovering round de- 
cay," still consecrates yon waste and desolate but hallowed 
spot, and under all circumstances, in weal or woe, when friends 
desert her and when foes pursue, to maintain Virgmia free, 
sovereig'ii, and independent. 

There is ever a tendency in mankind, absorbed in the anx- 
ious and pressing cares of the present, and stretching onward 
with eager gaze into the misty future, to forget the obligations 
of the past ; and while gliding in safety upon the bosom of the 
stream, whose majestic tide and crystal beauties attract their 
wonder and admiration, they pass over in silence, ingratitude 
and indifference, the far off" parent spring, whose silent ener- 
gies and ceaseless contributions have filled the channel with 
its wealth of waters. Rejoicing in the rich and priceless beauty 
of our heritage, claiming as our own, the deathless fame of 
those whose spoken word struck the sceptre from the tyrant's 
hand, and kindled into being the slumbering fires of freedom, 
we have permitted the memory of deeds which shone first and 
brightest in the darkest era of our country's history, to fade 
from our recollections, and the 15th of May '76 — whose fame 
should be eternal as the rolling year — this daij, which stands 
as the mighty pioneer in the cause of human rights — the con- 
voy ship ploughing the waves of an untried and perilous ocean, 
for feebler vessels following in its wake, is suffered to come 
and go " unnoticed all its worth," and even by Virginia?is to 
pass away " unhonoured and unsung." And with its fast fa- 
ding memory has perished, too, that loyalty and devotion to the 
Old Dominion, once so eminently characteristic of her sons — 
that filial pride which prompted them to resent any invasion 
of her rights, or denial of her claims to full and unfettered 



11 

sovereignty, as quickly and with as determined purpose as if 
the denial involved a charge of personal and individual de- 
gradation. Once, and the ejaculation, "God bless her," burned 
in every heart, beamed in every eye, and found utterance on 
every tongue — once, and so long as the principles with which 
she commenced her career, were cherished by her public men, 
in storm and tempest she was looked to as the polar star, " that 
rose and set not to the last" — while her name honoured and 
upheld by her sons, was to them, like that of ^^ citizen,'''' when 
Rome was free, a sufficient shield and passport, " far as the 
winds could waft or billows roll." Alas ! the change — spirit- 
less and dejected as if smitten by some sudden and general 
paralysis, she no longer wears the towering crest which adorned 
her youthful brow, and which, like the white plume of Henry 
of France, " led on when others faltered, and never led but 
to honour and to duty." Why is this so — whence and how 
comes it ? In the eloquent language of one* who loves her 
still, (my early friend and preceptor while here,) " why is it 
that her own proud banner no longer floats from her capitol — 
why is it that with a name to live, her sovereignty is as though 
it were dead?" 

" So sleeps the ])rifle of other days, 
So gloi-y's thrill is over, 
And hearts that once beat high for praise, 
Now feel that pulse no more." 

While as Americans and members of one great political 
family, we should ever cultivate and cherish a fervent attach- 
ment to the Union, as the best and happiest system which the 
wisdom and patriotism of man has ever devised, endeared to 
us by the most thrilling memories of the past, and the bright- 
est hopes of the future, and while we readily and heartily 
unite in the song of triumph, the hymn of praise, and the glad 
shout, with which millions of freemen welcome each return of 
our national anniversary, let not Virginians permit the brightest 
chapter in the history of our state to be to them and to the 
world "as a sealed book," her own anniversaries to pass tui- 
heeded — and the civic wreath which decked her infant brow, 
to wither and die in the midsummer of her day. Let us not, 
when summoning from the tomb the spirits of our mighty 
dead, and swelling with generous and gushing hearts the an- 
them of their praise, forget to claim as our own, him, whom 
the civilized world delighting to honour, would glad y adopt, 
and of whom it has been beautifully said, that "Heaven left 

* Judge Beverley Tucker, professor of Law, &c., William and Mary Col- 
lege. 



12 

him childless, that the nation might call him Father." Be it 
our pride and boast, that it was Virginia, who scenting the ap- 
proach of tyranny from afar, first and foremost authoritatively 
denounced the action of the British parliament, which under 
the suggestions of George Grenville, then prime minister, de- 
termined to raise a revenue from the colonies by means of 
internal taxes. Tliat so early as the spring of 1765, her voice 
was heard declaring in the bold language of her " forest born 
Demosthenes," that "the right to tax her people resided only 
in her assembly, and that she would hold as an enemy to pub- 
lic liberty all who maintained a contrary doctrine." That it 
was her example of immediate opposition to illegal authority, 
which spreading with telegraphic rapidity throughout the 
lengths and breadths of the land, brought about that moral 
earthquake whose convulsions shook the monarch on his dis- 
tant throne, and drove into disgrace and retirement the bung- 
ling and rapacious minister who dared propose it. That to 
Virginia belongs the honour of having conceived that wise 
American measure of convening the colonies through their 
representatives in general congress assembled, for the purpose 
of deliberating upon the measures necessary to their defence 
against a common enemy. 

There was a time when Virginians, proud and mindful of 
these monuments of their glory, would sooner have died than 
have consented to strike them from the world's admiring 
gaze — when they deemed it a sacred duty to teach their off- 
spring in childhood, that amid the roar of cannon and martial 
array that ushers in the nation's annual jubilee, they should 
not forget that what the thirteen United Colonies did on the 
4th of July, was but the hearty response and ready echo of 
that stern defiance already ringing in the tyrant's ears, uttered 
by Virginia on the 15th of May preceding, and consummated 
by the exercise of the highest attributes of sovereignty on the 
29th of June '76. That their first and highest allegiance and 
reverence, next to that due to God, was to Virginia, and that 
where her banner waved there were her children to be found 
pledged and sworn to maintain her independence and to en- 
force her rights, while one man remained to tread her deck, or 
one shot to be fired from her locker. 

Difficult, arduous and fearful was the task of forming a sys- 
tem of government suited to the various wants and conflicting 
interests of the different members of the confederacy, and of 
so adjusting the balances of the constitution as to bring about 
that equiponderance between the centripetal and centrifugal for- 
ces, which keeping the general and state governments within 
their proper orbits, would ensure the strength of each, and 



13 

preserve order and harmony among all. More clearly and ac- 
curately than any other of his great colabourers. did he, whose 
trumpet voice had lashed into tempest the heaving ocean of 
public opinion, in those dark and eventful days which preceded 
the revolution, foresee with prophetic vision, the vast increase 
of patronage and power on the part of the general govern- 
ment, which threatened sooner or later to destroy the rights 
and sovereignty of the states. Hence the admonitions of Pa- 
trick Henry, whose stern and unyielding opposition to the 
adoption of the federal constitution, brought into as full play 
the matchless powers of his oratory and the generous suscep- 
tibilities of his ardent and intrepid nature, as when in sublime 
defiance of the proudest nation of the world, he hurled his 
thunders at the tyrant's head. His warning voice, alas too 
little heeded at the time, has full often since, like the ghost in 
Hamlet, pointing to his gaping wounds, made the blood run 
cold upon the aching heart, as crash after crash the pillars of 
our strength have fallen, and first one and then another barrier 
has been swept away before the onward, deep, resistless and 
swelling waves of federal usurpation and encroachment. That 
solemn admonition, as it speaks to us now from " beyond that 
horizon which binds mortal eyes," and points us to the fearful 
rents that have been made in the mantle which once sheltered 
the rights and liberties of the states, is heard in distinct and 
mournful accents, like the tolling note for some departed friend, 
repeating still the great truth which he laboured to impress 
upon his countrymen, "that a defect of power may be sup- 
plied, but an excess of power can never be recalled." 

Those who taught these sentiments of filial devotion to 
Virginia, and who watched over her with such Argus eyed and 
sleepless vigilance, were not at that day deemed inimical or 
faithless to the Union, or suspected of being unfriendly to its 
continuance. No, gentlemen, of them no such groundless 
fears were entertained — had they been, their lives spent in the 
service of their country, their efforts to build up her fortunes, 
and to develope to the uttermost her mighty resources, would 
have branded the accusation as false, as the foul tongue that 
uttered it, and sent the slanderer drifting before the tempest 
breath of popular indignation, which, though '-still as the 
breeze, is yet dreadful as the storm." And what was true of 
them is also true of those few into whose hearts their precepts 
have fallen, and who would act out at this day, the principles 
which guided them, — which made Virginia mightiest among 
the mighty — when her voice was heard, but to be obeyed — 
her will made known, but to be done in the council chambers 
of the nation. Feeling that the " sacred right of a people con- 



14 

stituting a community within themselves to govern themselves 
in all things, and to decide for themselves in the last resort in 
all that pertains to their welfare," was the best and only secu- 
rity for their happiness, they were ready to maintain and de- 
fend it at any and every hazard, not that they trusted the 
plighted faith of other communities less, but loved more the 
shelter of that government of which they were the sole archi- 
tects, and which at pleasure they could destroy. 

It needs no second sight or gift of prophecy to foretell the 
doom which awaits ns, should we permit to sleep on in the 
grave, which the overpowering patronage of the general go- 
vernment is daily digging deeper and wider, that noble and 
just sentiment of state pj'ide, on the preservation of which our 
fathers counted so largely in adjusting the balances of power 
in the federal constitution, and which alo7ie while properly 
cherished can prevent the states of this Union, from merging 
into one vast consolidated empire, over which the night of 
despotism shall brood in silent undisturbed and rayless gloom, 
on whose cold and still and pulseless bosom, like the unruffled 
surface of the Dead sea, no symptom of life will be seen to re- 
lieve the dull and cheerless waste. Such for a time " the wave- 
less calm and slumber of the dead," then follows that revul- 
sion more terrible than the bursting volcano, the heavings and 
convulsions of liberty in her last expiring paroxisms of grief 
and anguish, vainly struggling to maintain at least some show 
of strength, and finally falling smitten and crushed forever, 
among the temples once hallowed and consecrated to her wor- 
ship. Then will vi^e have reached the fatal terminus from 
which, as to him who crosses the fabled Styx, there is no re- 
turn — for while the principles of our freedom may never die 
to others, they survive not to those who once enjoying, have 
cast them heedlessly away, and come not again to illumine the 
altars where once their fires have been extinguished. Then 
will liberty, which like the dove from the ark had rested here 
and reared her banner of hope and promise to cheer the op- 
pressed and lift up the sinking heart of misery, sigh her last 
farewell to the hapless land, where the brightest anticipations 
of millions have perished forever, and plume her wings for a 
returnless flight, leaving us stranded and wrecked among 
booming surges and lonely rocks, 

" As some ill-guided bark well built and strong, 
Which angry waves cast out on desert shore, 
To moulder in the winds and rains of heaven." 

If we would avoid the dread realization of this fearful pic- 
ture — if we would illustrate and confirm by our successful ex- 



15 

ample, the much disputed theory of man's capacity for self- 
government — if we would continue our loved country as here- 
tofore, the blessed asylum to which the victims of oppression, 
as they look up from beneath the grinding despotisms of the 
old world, may turn their eyes with renovated hope, as the 
one bright clime where freedom still rears her crest " in full 
and free defiance" — to which, when fleeing the persecution 
that desolates his home, aiid mingling his groans with the wild 
winds that waft him "areturnless distance from family and 
friends," the exile from other lands may repair, as the hunted 
stag that seeks the shelter of some friendly grove, here to bide 
in peace and safety, with a nation's strong arm to guard his 
rights, and freedom's lamp to light his footsteps. If such be 
the generous and lofty aspirations which thrill the bosom of 
the American, as the teeming memories of the past rush over 
the swelling heart, prompting him to devote whatever of time, 
or toil, or sacrifice, the honour and welfare of his country may 
demand, then let him remember the lesson so early taught and 
so strikingly impressed by the precepts and examples of those 
from whom our liberties and our blessings came, that the 
bright constellation which gilds our sky, will remain to cheer 
and gladden our vision, 07ili/ so long as each clustering star, 
typical of the rights and sovereignty of the states^ shall re- 
main in full, clear and cloudless majesty, brilliant and beauti- 
ful, as when first they streamed their morning splendor to illu- 
mine the world with a day-beam from on high. Let him re- 
member that the great and leading motive which led to the 
adoption of the federal constitution, was the necessity of 
having some general head to direct and control the foreign 
relations of the states, and to bring about that equality in this 
respect, which a system thus devised, could alone secure, 
wisely leaving to each the entire management of her own in- 
ternal regulations, and thus constituting a written compact of 
specific grants, binding while adhered to, but rendered void 
and nugatory by any departure from its plain and express 
stipulations. 

Upon such principles was formed and by such only can be 
preserved that Union around which are entwined the best and 
brightest hopes of humanity, and which to uphold and perpe- 
tuate, we are pledged by recollections, the most sacred, that 
can appeal to the hearts of a people, united by the cultivated 
sense of kindred ties and common responsibilities. But if, 
gentlemen, these memories, which brighten the gloom of our 
early history, breathe " a language and a spell," beyond the 
power of poetry to paint, in every bosom which beats respon- 
sive to the thunders of the revolution, how like the roll of 



16 

Ziska's drum, do they peal from mountain to mountain and 
swell along the vallies of Virginia, 

" Whose meanest rill and mightiest river, 
Rolls mingling with their fame forever." 

When the dark spirit of the storm was seen approaching, 
like the angel of desolation, to sweep over our land with wild 
and convulsive energy, unmoved by the dangers that surround- 
ed them, the men of that day, with faith, and hope, firm and un- 
wavering, as that which stilled the tempest and calmed the 
raging sea, for they too, like the blessed Saviour, looked to 
Hi?)i " whose smile can make the desert bloom," and in that 
high and Heaven-inspired confidence, launched their lone 
barque upon the heaving ocean of revolution, to be borne in 
safety on its billows, or whelmed beneath its surges. Full 
upon their devoted heads, as falls the gathered lightning from 
its cloud, the impending tempest broke in awful violence, yet 
still their hand was upon the helm, and still their pennant 
fluttered in the breeze, and still that life-boat of liberty to the 
world, held on its destined course upon the troubled deep, 

" Walking its waters like a thing of life, 
That seemed to dare the elements to strife." 

Throughout the vicissitudes of that protracted struggle, she 
who had been the first and boldest in denouncing usurpation, 
was ever found foremost in defending upon the tented field the 
doctrines she had avowed in her convention. Though pre- 
pared and resolved single handed and alone if necessary, to 
stand or fall by the declaration she had uttered on the 15th of 
May '76, yet with cordial greeting did she welcome others, 
who stimulated by her example, had embarked their all upon 
one common bottom, and looked to her, to pilot them " o'er 
the mountain wave" safely into port. And well did Virginia 
answer their expectations — nobly did she respond to the hopes 
she had awaked. In the darkest hour, her faith and courage 
quailed not to the fiercest onset of the foe, but gathering 
strength from her trials, courage from her exertions, she seem- 
ed, even while covered with clouds, ever gilded by the sun- 
shine. In this Old City, God bless her, the ancient Capital of 
Virginia, where our freedom dates its birth, the ball of revo- 
lution received its first impulse, destined finally to rest on the 
neighbouring plains of Yorktown. She, whose soil had first 
been hallowed by liberty's sacred presence, was also the the- 
atre where tyranny made a last ineffectual stand, and while 
receiving its doom in each discharge of the death-vomiting 
cannon, Virginia, with avenging blows, was carving deep in 



17 

sabre cuts on the helmet of the foe, for herself and her sister 
states, their proud enduring title to be free. Late times a 
kindling eye shall turn, bright with the memory of their glo- 
rious deeds, to muse upon the spot where wisdom planned and 
valour fought in other days, and as their names handed down 
in the full measure of the deathless song, shall roll in melody 
from the matron's and maiden's lips, in the spirit that fired the 
Spartan mother, when bidding her mail-clad boy to return 
with his shield or on it, will they be ready to sacrifice the son 
or lover, enjoining it as a sacred duty to bear their country's 
banner ever proudly onward, or falling in its defence, " tri- 
umph even in death, by leaving the conqueror nothing, but 
the worthless carcass of him he would enslave." 

Antiquity can boast of names that will live in the memory 
of man while freedom and learning have an abiding place on 
earth. The glory of Carthage will ever be associated with 
the dauntless courage of Hannibal, whose conquering legions 
swept like the resistless tornado from the snow-capt summit 
of the Alps along the classic plains of Italy. The brief in- 
dependence of Thebes, lasting during the life of her Epami- 
nondas, and perishing with his death, will perpetuate to the 
latest ages, his virtues and his patriotism, as the one bright 
name that gems her history. With the mention of Athens, 
comes the recollection of Themistocles the brave, and Harmo- 
dius the free. For stern integrity of purpose, for modest worth 
and patriotism, Rome in her pride and power would have 
pointed to Fabricius and Cincinnatus. Charmed by the elo- 
quence, that in olden times kindled the flame of patriotism in 
the hearts of the people, and even at a period of great popular 
corruption, caused it to spread throughout all classes, like fire 
in the prairie, we recall with pleasure and gratitude at this dis- 
tant day, the recorded triumphs of genius and learning, as they 
flashed from the senate chamber or Roman forum, when Ca- 
taline crouched and quailed under the impeachments of Cicero, 
or when before his brilliant sarcasm, and indignant denuncia- 
tion, the profligate and rapacious Verres was driven to seek in 
exile, the shelter and safety which his own land could no 
longer afl"ord him. 

Such are some of the evidences which antiquity would ad- 
duce to sustain her claims to unrivalled distinction in eloquence 
and arts, in wisdom and patriotism — such the names whose 
unfading glory still ilhimines her history, like stars in a mid- 
night sky, brightening the otherwise deep and rayless gloom 
that long has rested on her annals. Far be it from me to say 
aught that would detract from her fame, or wither one leaf of 
the laurel that adorns her crumbling ruins, and which every 
3 



18 

classic heart would wish to bloom forever in unfading fresh- 
ness. But when we would look out for the boldest in action, 
upon those fields where friend and foe have sunk overwhelm- 
ed " in one red burial blent" — when we would call up the 
memory of those worthy to be the " pensman's theme and 
poet's inspiration," Virginians need look to no other history 
than their own, for incentives to high and honourable action, 
or for instances of public virtue, unequalled in the annals of 
man, and far more brilliant than the world beside can boast. 
If Leonidas, with his Spartan band of three hundred strong 
at the straits of Thermopylas, could by one bloody, yet una- 
vailing effort, cover his country's arms with undying glory, 
making his name forever after a watchword to call together 
the free youth of Sparta, with how much greater pride may 
Virginia turn her eyes with maternal fondness upon the page 
still glowing with the brilliant achievements of Washington, 
who, when all seemed lost, still towered majestic amid the 
strife, 

" As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm ; 
While round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

If memory delight to linger amid those scenes where once 
were reared the temples of the free, and to dwell upon that 
period of the world's history, when the dignity and freedom 
of the Roman Senate seemed proof against peril at home or 
from abroad, Virginia may justly claim even in the hour when 
clouds and shadows rested on her future, and " storm and tem- 
pest beat upon her brow," to have gathered within her capi- 
tol a body of men, who for wisdom in council, firmness in dan- 
ger, fortitude amid the most disheartening circumstances, and 
that sublime oratory, whose thunders woke responsive echoes 
in the hearts of a whole people, and pealing over ocean, 
" shook the Philip of the seas," may well compare with the 
brightest era in the annals of civilization, whether of ancient 
or modern times. All of those who then stood up the bul- 
warks of their country, to roll back the full tide of misrule 
and injustice, which for years had been deepening and widen- 
ing in its spread, have long since reascended " the home of 
their nativity," where freed from the imperfections of huma- 
nity, they repose in peace upon the bosom of their God. But 
theirs was not the ephemeral notoriety — the brief delusive 
ignis fatuus hedcm, "flitting ere you can point the place," 
which does but herald a man to his grave, and then is heard, 
and seen no more. The garland that blooms above the tombs, 



19 

where rest the mortal wreck of the immortal, shall wear the 
freshness and beauty of spring, through ages yet to come, and 
time will but deepen on patriot hearts, the memory of their 
virtues, "as streams their channels deeper wear." The names 
of Henry and Lee, of Gary and Mason, Madison, Bland, Ca- 
bell, Carrington, Rutherford, Harvie, Mercer, Read, and others, 
whose deeds are linked with fame, need no marble monument 
or lengthened eulogy to tell their praise, but will live forever 
enshrined in a nation's heart, " Sarcophagus sublime," and be 
blest by millions yet unborn, as the best and brightest benefac- 
tors of their kind. 

The character which Virginia so early in her history acquired 
as the nurse of statesmen, and fruitful mother of great men, 
rests not alone upon the achievements of those whose glory 
and fame brighten the morning of her existence. Others ra- 
pidly rose to supply the places of those who had borne the 
heat and burden of the day — when to be deemed a patriot 
worthy of trust, required something more than mere profes- 
sions of " attachment to the people," and by the wisdom and 
firmness of their public course, raised yet higher the pyramid 
fame which the elder sons of the same loved mother had pre- 
viously erected. As on the 15th of May she had stood up 
alone in her defence, but when joined in the noble struggle 
by others, she had poured out her best blood in their defence, 
so when peace had rolled away the dark clouds of war, and 
spread her white wings over the land, did she continue to 
swell the stream of national wealth and glory, by continued 
contributions from her own exhaustless fountains. As the 
choice of the colonies had fallen upon a Virginian to lead on 
" the forlorn hope," who by his valour had shewn himself 
" the mountain storm," so when victory had perched upon 
their banner, did the unanimous voice of freemen twine around 
the brow of that same Virginian, with the laurel he had al- 
ready won for himself, the brightest civic wreath in their power 
to bestow; and in like manner did he prove himself "in peace 
the gale of spring." The statesman of Monticello and the 
patriot sage of Montpelier, by their noble defence of human 
rights and disinterested devotion to the Union, have left be- 
hind them a world-wide fame, and added another and still 
another star to the bright Galaxy of Virginia, for whom their 
rising splendours first shone, and along whose sky their latest 
beams in lingering beauty played. England has had her 
Mansfield — Virginia her Marshall, who, being the first to fill 
the highest judicial station in his country, exhibited those 
transcendant abilities, equalled only by his unpretending mo- 
desty, and preserved the ermine of justice spotless, pure and 



20 

unstained as when from Heaven it fell upon him, England 
has no prouder names than Fox and Pitt and Burke. Virginia, 
while detracting nothing from the unrivalled powers of " the 
wondrous three," might tell of Randolph and Giles and Bar- 
bour — and proudest among all proud names among the living 
of this age — of him who stood so long the Solon of the 
Senate — who, though adopted by a gallant sister state, yet 
clings with filial affection to the mother who watched over 
his friendless youth — of him, whose voice has a spell, and 
binds as with a charm, the hearts of millions of freemen, — 
whose best years have been given to his country — whose noble 
and generous bosom now bleeds at every pore for the hero-boy 
who fell in the blaze of his fame, upon the bloody field of 
Buena Vista — him whose deeds are syllabled by other tongues 
in distant lands, 

" As mingling in theii* grateful lay, 
Bozzaris with the name of Clay." 

But gentlemen, I am admonished, that carried away by the 
interesting theme assigned me, I have already drawn too large- 
ly on your patience, and the kind indulgence of those who 
have honoured me by their presence. With one or two addi- 
tional thoughts, suggested by the circumstances under which 
we meet, and 1 must bid you, good bye, and God speed. Cold 
indeed must be the heart which fails to sympathize with you 
in the hopes that now animate your bosoms, as flushed and 
stimulated by the prospect of collegiate honors, and the well 
earned rewards of toil and study, you are rapidly approaching 
the period of final separation from this loved Eden of the 
mind, where undisturbed by the passions and prejudices which 
mar the harmony of the outer world, you have been quietly 
and diligently arming yourselves with the implements of fu- 
ture warfare, which like the shield and spear of the German 
youth, are necessary to ensure victory in the arduous struggle 
which awaits you. Hitherto you have lived like a band of 
brothers, forming within yourselves a magic circle of feeling 
and intelligence, and however long your separation, or distant 
your wanderings, from this nursery of the mind, whether in 
joy or sorrow, in sunshine or in cloud, will you ever look back 
to this period of your lives in full and undiminished pleasure, 
as the green oasis in life's desert, in which friendships the most 
sincere, attachments the most lasting, and ties the most disin- 
terested have been formed. Soon will you receive from your 
Alma Mater the spur and belt of college knighthood, and 
going forth from her halls for the last time, each to become the 



21 

architect of his own fame and fortunes, will she who has 
supplied you with that knowledge which is but another name 
for power and influence, bid you with her parting injunction, 
to be true and faithful to that purest and holiest and most re- 
sponsible of all earthly trusts — the trust of educated talent. 
Rightly directed to those high and honourable objects which 
Heaven enjoins on all, thus enriched by her bounty and her 
blessings, it will prove a safety lamp to the republic in her pe- 
rilous progress ; but madly perverted and made to pander to the 
lowest passions of the ignorant and vicious, it will be as effi- 
cient as brute force in cleaving down, as with iron hand, the 
institutions of your country. I need not tell you of the deep 
solicitude, and fond hopes of parents, friends and professors, 
which now so closely centering around you, will send out their 
sympathies to meet and greet you in every step and through 
all the stages of your progress, upon the new and untried thea- 
tre of action to which you are rapidly hastening. Need I re- 
mind you of the yearning affection of that more tender parent 
who watched over your cradled slumbers, and whose thoughts 
by day and by night, are ever with her absent child, while her 
heart is poured out in all the gushing tenderness of maternal 
love, in secret prayer to Heaven, to shield his youth from the 
allurements of dissipation, and to return him to her bosom, 
fresh in feeling as when he left his childhood's home, stainless 
in character, as when she imprinted the farewell kiss — a 
mother's kiss, sacred seal and talisman of virtue — given by her 
who loving you Jirst, loves you best, and dedicating you to 
honour, to duty, and to God. Wring not by cruel disappoint- 
ment, the fond heart whose every throb is for your welfare, 
and which would cling to and sustain you in your darkest hour, 
as the ivy around the crumbling pillar it adorns, and when all 
others would desert and spurn you, that mother would still re- 
member, the innocent prattle that soothed her ear, as her loved 
one "smiled so sweetly on her knee." And so let her prayer 
be answered, and so let your long looked for return be joyful 
and bright to her expectant gaze, " as the eye of morning to 
the tempest tost." Thus will you prove yourselves the stay of 
her declining years — the ornaments and benefactors of your 
country. To this strong call, Virginia adds her own deep and 
earnest appeal, bidding you in voice potential to rouse from its 
death-like torpor her dormant mind and sleeping energies, and 
thus rolling away the stone from the sepulchre, in which her 
glories have been entombed, place her once more proudly be- 
fore the world, gilded by the morning light of her intellectual 
and moral resurrection. Thus sustained by the wisdom and 
chivalry of her so?is, gemmed and jewelled by the refinement 



22 

and purity and patriotism of her daughters^ may Virginia 
stand forever^ as she stood on the I5th of May 1776, /ree, so- 
vereign and independent, no longer a feeble and twinkling star, 
but a sun in the political firmament, 

" 'THl wrap't in flames the realms of ether glow, 
And Heaven's last thunders shake the world below," 



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